Conventionally, there is known a product obtained by attaching a plurality of articles filled with snack foods or the like to a strip such as strip-like film, tape, or the like. The product is referred to as a “strip pack” because the product is displayed, in a retail store or the like, in a suspended state with a portion of a strip secured in place and customers pull individual articles off the strip. The strip packs allows a reduction in the display space while providing for a diverse range of designs, thus offering an advantage in terms of increasing customers' willingness to buy.
The device recited in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application. No. 2004-182302 is an example of a strip-pack manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing strip packs of the above description. In the device, which is disposed directly beneath a vertical bag packaging machine, one end of an article manufactured by the bag packaging machine is clamped from both sides by a pair of gripping arms disposed to the left and right, and the article is moved to an attaching position located in a lower region, whereupon the end of the article is attached to a strip. In the device recited in U.S. Pat. No. 3,864,895, which is also disposed directly beneath a vertical bag packaging machine, an upper surface of an article manufactured by the machine is held by suction cups, and moved to an attaching position located to the front, whereupon one end of the article is attached to the strip.